Maryville College Homecoming 2025: Founder’s Day Showcase uplifts the generosity of generations
Oct. 10, 2025
Every footfall across the Maryville College campus echoes with a different story, and nowhere was that more obvious than at tonight’s annual Founder’s Day Showcase at the Clayton Center for the Arts.
Having returned to College Hill for the annual Homecoming celebration, alumni who graduated last May sat alongside those returning for their 50th reunion and beyond, all of them basking in the warmth of nostalgia as they wrapped themselves in the memories of faculty members who lingered long after the bell and the students they once were who first dared to dream here.
Decades of memories, triumphs and a shared belief in the power of this place to shape lives, spark ambition and produce graduates who can change the world was made manifest in a tangible form recognized by MC President Dr. Bryan Coker: Gifts totaling millions of dollars, invested not in buildings alone but in the promise of every student who walks these hallowed paths, the legacy of every professor who went above and beyond, and the vision of a College that has always been “of and for the region” it calls home.
“We are so grateful for all of this support,” Coker told the assembled crowd, who gathered in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre following the President’s Welcome Reception during which several individual donors were recognized for their contributions to the College. “These are challenging days for higher education, and especially for small, independent colleges. Our margins are razor-thin as we continue working to make a Maryville College education as affordable as possible for deserving students of all backgrounds. Reunion giving is a meaningful way for many alumni to remember and honor their time as students while also paying it forward, so that current and future generations can continue to have a transformative experience here.”
Performances and presentations
In addition to the recognition of generosity, the showcase featured performances from the MC Division of Fine Arts ensembles, including the annual Homecoming Choir that includes current students in the Maryville College Concert Choir and choir alumni of yesteryear who relish the opportunity to sing again. Along with the Tartanband and the small choral ensembles such as Off Kilter, the showcase also included presentation of the annual Maryville College Alumni Awards, including the Alumni Citation Award — given to any alumnus/a of MC who has demonstrated outstanding leadership or initiative service in his/her community, church or chosen profession — which was given to Jonika Dhima Hoomes ’02; and the Kin Takahashi Award for Young Alumni — recognizing an alumnus/a who has, within 20 years of his/her graduation from MC, lived a life characteristic of Maryville College’s most acclaimed alum, Kin Takahashi (Class of 1895), which was given to co-winners LeSean Brannon ’11 and Dr. Jerica Johnson Hall ’13.
“As students at Maryville College, we are always told to ‘do good on the largest possible scale,’” said Marcia Kilby ’89, newly installed chair of the Maryville College Board of Directors. “Tonight’s Alumni Awards are the epitome of that, going back to the first steps of a student who strives to do good and culminating in professionals who continue to do good. Our alumni are amazing, and the three we recognized tonight are deserving in so many ways. It’s an honor to give them the recognition they deserve.”
In addition, C. Michael “Mike” Davis, who recently stepped down as chair of the MC Board of Directors, was presented with the Maryville College Medallion, the College’s highest honor. After a video highlighting his journey to the chairmanship and his steady hand through challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, he reflected on his tenure and extolled the luminous path of the College’s current trajectory.
“Going forward, I’m optimistic about the College, and I think its best days are ahead of it,” he said. “As we wrap up tonight, I want to leave you with a saying Wayne Kramer (’74) made famous: ‘Go Scots!’”
Philanthropy on display
Such enthusiasm was practically universal across campus on Friday, the second day of the College’s Homecoming 2025 festivities. For the Rev. Bill ’72 and Jan Welton Postler ’72, the return to their alma mater is akin to a pilgrimage to sacred ground, they said.
“I think the thing that impresses us is that the facilities and the grounds just look so well-kept, like it’s obvious somebody cares about them,” Bill said. “And we love to see that there are a number of students on campus. It seems to be a lively place.”
The Postlers were among the donors recognized by Coker during the pre-showcase reception and from the podium as well for a gift of $500,000. The Bill and Jan Welton Postler Isaac Anderson Fellows Endowment will provide tuition money for the Isaac Anderson Fellowship for Church Leadership, a church-related scholarship program that supports students “who want to engage with questions of faith as they decide what they are called to do in the world,” according to the Maryville College website.
For the Postlers, such an investment is an expression of gratitude for the ways in which Maryville College allowed them to do exactly that.
“The faculty at that time helped me to recognize that one could be a thoughtful person and a faithful person at the same time,” Bill said. “They taught me that one could ask difficult questions about faith, and coming out of a science and math background as I did, that was important to me. They taught me that faith was not turning a blind eye to the challenging questions of life, but faith was a way of negotiating those challenges and those difficulties.”
In addition to the Postlers, Dorsey “Dan” Ellis Jr. ’60 — along with his late wife, Sondra Wagner Ellis ’60 — was celebrated during both the reception and the showcase for a $750,000 gift over five years to establish the Sondra and Dorsey Ellis Center for Faculty and Student Excellence. A longtime educator who’s both a distinguished professor and dean emeritus of Washington University Law School and who served the Maryville College Board of Directors as chair from 2004 until 2011, Ellis has been an ardent proponent of the same strong faculty-student relationships that changed the lives of the Postlers.
The center named for the Ellises is designed to serve as a hub for both faculty and student growth, providing comprehensive resources to enhance both teaching and learning. Faculty in all stages of their careers will be able to take advantage of professional development opportunities and programming in areas such as evidence-based pedagogy, curricular innovation and leadership development, and students will get a variety of options to support academic success in order to equip them with the tools, strategies and confidence needed to thrive in the classroom and out.
Coker also recognized Mary Boldon, the widow of the late, longtime MC faculty member Dr. Dean Boldon, whose 12-year tenure as academic dean of Maryville College has been described as “one of the two most distinguished in the 20th century.” A sociology professor who also served as dean of the faculty and chief academic officer, Boldon and his wife were longtime financial supporters of the College, and even after his death, Mary Boldon’s generosity has made her the newest member of the Founder’s Circle, the College’s most prestigious level of giving reserved for those whose cumulative donations total at least $1 million.
Class gifts go above and beyond
Other donors, Coker noted, opted to pool their combined resources and make gifts through their individual class years. This year’s milestone reunion classes of 1965, 1975 and 1985 were mentioned by name, and the Class of 1965 especially, Coker said, led the way with a class donation and a separate scholarship endowed by a class member.
“I specifically want to commend the Class of 1965, led by Class President Jerry Stewart,” Coker said. “They have raised a total of $150,000 to date with a goal to endow the Scots Supplies Closet, a resource which provides students with free access to clothing, hygiene products, perishable and nonperishable food, and various other items at no cost. By taking care of some of our students’ basic needs, Class of 1965, you are helping our students stay on their academic journey and eventually realize their goal of a Maryville College degree.”
On top of that, Dr. John Nichols ’65, professor emeritus of mathematics and computer science, who enjoyed a 44-year career as a Maryville College faculty member, donated a significant sum of money to establish the Dr. John Nichols Award for Excellence, which will award tuition money annually to high-performing students in the areas of mathematics, computer science and statistics.
Also on the fundraising front, the MC Athletics program recently completed “Scots Wha Hae” campaign — translated from Scottish, it means “Scots Who Have” — saw more than 500 parents, supporters and fans donate $186,000 from Sept. 20 through Oct. 4, far surpassing the original campaign goal of $150,000. And, Coker noted, more donor philanthropy will follow: On Thursday, Oct. 16, “an exciting new program for our students,” paid for by “another major gift to the College,” will be unveiled, Coker said.
As the auditorium continued to vibrate from the nonstop applause, Coker made one final announcement: A $12 million gift from the State of Tennessee, designed to serve as seed money for the recently announced Alexander Institute for Conservation Leadership and the Sciences (a recent change from its original moniker, the Alexander Institute for Environmental Education and the Sciences) — a new, state-of-the-art, 65,000-square-foot, $80 million dollar science building — has been received.
“The project received a major boost, and we accomplished what many thought was not possible, when Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Legislature allocated $12 million in this year’s state budget to help us make the Alexander Institute a reality,” Coker said. “As a private college, we received $12 million in public funding for an institute focused on conservation and environmental education. That’s a very big deal, my friends.”
The facility will be the latest addition to a campus that started out with five students in a “small brown house on Main Street” in downtown Maryville, according to Dr. Ralph Waldo Lloyd ’15 in his book “Maryville College: A History of 150 Years, 1819-1969” — and will stand as another testament, Coker pointed out, to the indefatigable willpower and unflagging dedication of alumni who continue to celebrate the school that gave them a future.
And Homecoming, he added, is when those traits are made evident as Scots come home to where, as the College’s Alma Mater extols, “Chilhowee’s lofty mountains pierce the Southern blue.”
“Homecoming is a wonderful weekend to be in the foothills of East Tennessee and to celebrate this amazing institution for which we all care very deeply,” he said. “I often say that Homecoming at Maryville College is ‘pleasantly or delightfully overwhelming,’ because for a relatively small college, Homecoming here is a big deal.
“I always delight in seeing and feeling the energy, the passion and the enthusiasm which calls people home to this very special place, year after year. And I always find myself completely humbled to be leading a place that all of you care for and love so very much.”
